Infants who had positive interactions with their fathers are more likely to explore the world around them with vigor and interest. They tend to become more curious and less hesitant or fearful, especially in the face of novel or unusual stimuli. The combinations of a father's more active play initiation and his somewhat less immediate support in the face of frustration seems to promote adaptive and problem-solving competencies in a child.

By the time they start school, children with hands-on dads are better able to wait their turn for the teacher's attention. Young children whose fathers were involved in a positive way have also been found to be less impulsive and to display more self-control in unfamiliar social situations.

Researchers in the 1950's studied a group of five-year olds, focusing on their feelings of sympathy and compassion for other people. In a follow-up study 30 years later, they found that, as adults the strongest predictor of empathic concern for others was a high level of paternal care they received as children.

The role father's play in parenting has been officially acknowledged by researchers, who say they're just as important as mothers. Information from hundreds of research projects and their findings revealed that the experience of child birth can be equally emotional for both men and women and that in 36 percent of families, where there are two earning members, fathers tend to play the main caring role. They also found that pre-school age children who spend lots of time enjoying playing with their dads are often more sociable when they attend preschool. In addition, children whose fathers were involved in their care and upbringing before they were 11years old were less likely to go off the rails and have a criminal record by the time they reached 21. For women, dads play a major part after the birth and many view them as their main source of support and help.
Research shows that when men are more involved in their families, they feel better about themselves, their wives feel better about themselves, their marriage is more satisfying to each spouse, and remarkably, their children are more popular and successful in elementary school.

It's important to realize that the father's involvement in the family is the result of many factors: men, women, economics and culture all contribute. These days, dads too (like moms) are pulled in different directions by changing expectations about their proper role in the family coupled with unrelenting pressures to be a successful breadwinner. Mothers may complain about their husband's disengagement yet be unclear in their wishes, needlessly critical, disrespectful of different styles of parenting, or even threatened by a father's competence. Although it is unfair, the workplace typically rewards men more than women for continuing to work for pay after children, and is usually unsympathetic to fathers who want to shift their priorities from work to home. And there is still a widespread and deeply held belief that mothers should be the principal parent and that there is something odd about men who are strongly pulled into a nurturing role.
Nonetheless, when we step outside of a framework of blame, the fact still remains that it is profoundly important to children-and husbands and wives- that fathers take a very active role in parenting. There is an African proverb, which states, "It takes a village to raise a child." With all the fragmentation of modern life, the "village" that raises most kids these days is at best a village of two. If dad is missing, the it's a village of one. That doesn't work.